Fancy Twill in Green and Purple Silk

Mom and I have switched back to our original looms but we both decided to reuse the weaving patterns that are on the looms, in my case it is a lovely 8 shaft fancy twill.  I put on another hand painted silk warp, this one is 2/22 and is a lovely fresh green with a sinuous purple curves.

For the weft I was sure that a blue would be perfect, but I tried royal blue, navy and light blue 2/8 Tencel.  The darker blues matched the purple and would have hidden the pattern and the light blue over powered everything.

Next I tried Tencel in straw, taupe and birch, a silvery green.  They are brave choices but weren’t the right one.

The last round I tried black, charcoal, a different blue and a different navy.  The clear winner here is the black, it makes the green and purple pop.

The pattern is a beautiful fancy twill from Strickler with large diamond and cross motifs.  

I quite like the juxtaposition of the formality of the pattern with the organic movement of the colours on the warp, it makes for an interesting dichotomy.  I think that the finished scarf will be fantastic.

Final Garden Photo is Hydrangea paniculata 'Vanille Fraise' the shrub is over 6 feet tall and the heads are at least 1 foot in length.  The flowers start as white in the summer then as the nights get cooler they start to pinken going all the way to dark pink.  The charming blue violet flowers is hardy Geranium 'Rozanne' it spreads 2-3 feet and flowers until the frost.  The small pink flowers are fall blooming Japanese Anemone called 'Fall in Love Sweetly', and they truly live up to their name!

Falling back into Weaving

I have seriously been considering selling my 12 Shaft Louet Spring Loom, since for the past ten months it has been idle.  Well, now that my knee pain is under control and I’m feeling perky again I thought I’d give the Spring one more warp to make sure that letting go was the right answer.  We have two Louet Springs in the studio, a Louet Spring 1 from 2008 and the other an Original 1990’s Louet Spring; so we thought we’d better see which one we want to keep.

So Ngaire and I swapped looms and I put a warp on the Original Spring loom.  We thought it would be interesting to see what the differences were and if that factored into which one we should sell.

I put on a painted silk warp that was one of the ones that I dyed last summer.  This was the last warp I made and it had on 132 ends and the dye colours were super subtle.  Well, 132 ends are far too few when the sett for silk is a minimum of 24 epi; so borders were on my radar.

I found a very pretty pattern in the Strickler 8 Shaft Pattern book and built my scarf from there.  I found some silk in a complementary blue colour to bulk out the width and chose teal tencel for the warp. This is the border sequence I chose.

The most notable difference that I noticed in the looms right off the bat is that the Original Spring is made of heavier gauge timber, it just feels more solid and tends to move around less.  The second difference is the distance from the castle to the back beam is about 5 cm longer, not sure why that has changed but there is more headroom when you’re working with the lease sticks.  The third major difference is the braking system which is a tad more cumbersome to use.  Frankly, it feels just the same and actually feels more secure on the floor.

Now, that I’m actually weaving again, I find that my knees are doing great as long as I take a short break now and then so I’m really enjoying the whole weaving process.  Here is the scarf off the loom but unwashed.

The scarf is a joy to weave and I’m really stoked at the end result which is a lovely scarf and as a bonus, I think we’ll hang on to both looms for now because weaving feels fine!

Here is the beauty shot!  For Sale.

Right now the stars of the garden are the grasses and my urns one on each side of the garage at the front of the house.  The flowers are Scaevola aemula or Fairy Fan Flowers and they bloom from June to December.

Celtic Knots Silk Scarf

It has been a long time since I’ve blogged but summer is starting to wind down and there is more time for weaving.  It has been a busy summer with lots of guests and with that a lot of travelling up and down the island, showing off all the beauty and wonders.  This photo is one of the local beaches on the left is the mainland of BC and on the right is Hornby Island with Vancouver Island behind.  

To get back into the swing of things I put on one of my hand painted silk warps, they are always a favourite to weave.  This one is 2/22 silk and is half pink and half purple, the colours have variation of colour ranging from soft pinks and lavenders to dark purple and hot pink.

The pattern is a lovely plaited twill that looks like Celtic knots braid.  I went for a black 2/8 Tencel weft because I wanted the pattern to pop.

The weaving went quickly as the treadling is just a straight draw so very nice to do after being away from the loom for a while.  The finished scarf is fabulous.  For Sale.

The garden, like every year, has it heroes and its disasters.  The highlights this year are the ever bearing strawberries which means we get a harvest in the spring and a second larger harvest in the late summer.  They have been so prolific this year that we have froze some to make jam in the winter.

The raspberries have been wonderful this year.  We have eaten raspberries since June, this is a second flowering and the raspberries are as big as a thumb.  The bumblebees, honey bees and humming birds all really love the flowers the canes just hum from all the pollinators.

In the front garden we are changing the plantings to be more drought resistant and to have more shrubs.  The mass planting of the Rudbeckia is great and adds a cohesiveness to the garden and as a bonus they are a super low maintenance plant.

In the back garden the planting is also changing we are adding roses to give structure and elegance to the borders.  The favourite this year is the Waiheke rose, hidden behind the zinnias.